The Wessington Springs townsite was founded in 1880 and platted in 1882, early in the era of agricultural settlement in the region. The town's boom era began in 1903, when a branch line of the Milwaukee Road railroad was constructed into the town from the east.
The town was the home of Wessington Springs College, an institution of higher learning that existed from 1887 until 1968. There is a baseball field in town that hosts an amateur baseball team named the Wessington Springs Owls.
Passages that mention Wessington Springs, cut from the printed page as they were published.
A history of Jerauld County, South Dakota1909 · page 233Read the page →
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The village of Wessington Springs, on May 3rd, applied to the county commissioners for permission to incorporate, which was granted subject to an election called for May 15th. The vote was favorable and on May 29th the following officers were elected: Trustees— J. H. Woodburn, F. W. Whitney and H. J. Wallace.
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A history of Jerauld County, South Dakota1909 · page 240Read the page →
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town, and the county commissioners decided to bridge the ravine and put the road on the south side. The contract was let April 26th to Anton Reindl to build a stone arch similar to the two he had built in the town of Wessington Springs. The contract price was $295. The grading of the new road was done by W. B. McDonald. The work on both the arch and the grade was accepted by the board at its July meeting.
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Wessington Springs, 1878 to 1973
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Wessington Springs. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1973Wessington Springs sheet · 1:24,000
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Wessington Springs.
On the National Register
8 historic places in Wessington Springs
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
places listed
8
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
8
each building in a district counts
first listed
1976
Wessington Springs Opera House
Buildings
Architectural styles listings
Late Victorian2
Dutch Colonial1
Art Deco1
Late 19th and Early 20th Century American Movement: Prairie School1
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (3), Wikidata (3), the National Register of Historic Places (8), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
2026
2014
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